By Jemimah Chungu
Social media is by far the most influential and manipulative media network in this era. Its influence is both positive and negative. Modern human activities including business, personal branding and politics have capitalized on the influence and manipulation that social media has on people. Social media are online media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, Hulu, tik-tok, YouTube, twitter, Tumblr just to mention but a few.
The African political environment has likewise taken a major transformation in its undertakings with the use of social media exerting their influence and manipulation on people often to popularization political aspirations. The political environment being the most important stakeholder for decision-making, the African politicians continue to advantage of social media after a social media for political activism, political propaganda and vote mobilization.
Social Media Political Activism
Political Activism involves the use of active and coercive online initiatives and campaigns to create awareness about political issues and/or promote political reforms. Political activists now take advantage of social media to promote denounce bad governance, promote good governance, political agendas and affiliations, and others.
An instance of political activism occurred in Zambia in 2020 when political activists took it social media to execute a peaceful protest against bad governance as opposed to the streets due to threats by political authorities. In the words of the former President, Edgar Lungu (then in power): “Those of you in Lusaka who are plotting to bring chaos by saying ‘we will demonstrate, we have freedom of speech, freedom to insult people,’ we will deal with you under the law,” “You want to provoke the police so that they react like the police in America. You speak of change, but we will change you instead.”
Despite a load of threats, this online protest enabled activists to address a wider audience using hashtags, tags, comments, followers, friends, comments, blogs, re-blogs and other social media activities. The activists chose a location in the peripherals of Lusaka to livestream a series of speeches denouncing corruption, high unemployment rates, improvement of education standards, respect for human rights, the tax system, accountable leadership, brutality, and poor governance. Facebook livestream remains the most used social media feed in among Zambian politicians. Maiko Zulu, a political activist who among others led the online protest echoed, “We used the protest to present a charter for a free society in which every Zambian can aspire to attain a decent living,” while another activist, Chama Fumbe, a human rights activist and music popularly known as ‘Pilato’ said, “Using Facebook helps protesters to evade efforts to shut them down. “There are two streets, the physical ones and the social media ones”, “We have more influence via the social media street than if we had used the physical streets.
This was a viral social media feed that was agreed by majority of the public (on social media) including opposition leader, Chishimba Kambwili, who credited; “Congratulations to Pilato and his group for a successful event. They have shown that innovation works, and that there are effective ways to deal with a dictator who relies on physical force. When you use technology and innovation you can defeat them easily.”
Additionally, Zambia’s the current President Hakainde Hichilema relied on to social media especially Facebook to draw popularity during his campaigns that toppled the Patriotic Front -PF- in 2021. He adopted the ‘Bally’ hashtag to mean ‘father of nation’ that is still trendy currently in his presidency.
With his emphasis on freedom of speech as opposed to the situation of the previous government, President Hichilema gets ugly criticism from the opposition through social media. However, he still takes advantage of the influential nature of social media to make a positive image of his positive governance through a strong online presence.
https://at.tumblr.com/africaninternational-magazine/social-media-is-a-major-drive-to-african-politics/vs73vrcyf4rp.
Social Media Political Propaganda
Social media has fueled a lot of political propaganda ever since political players realized it’s influence. Political propaganda is described as false or misleading information that is deliberately shared to skew people’s understanding of an issue and advance a cause, in this case a political cause (LibertiesEU). It can also be true but misinterpreted information that can be used to influence and/or manipulate the decisions of the people unlikely of their best interest.
Political leaders and the political environment at large use social media to fuel political propaganda. According to Liberties EU, “The rise of social media has been a boon to political propaganda.” Politicians use these platforms as an alternative outlet to traditional news media because they are free, easy, and allow them to reach certain segments of the population that the propagandist believes will be predisposed to supporting their propaganda. There are also techniques within social media that help, such as the use of fake accounts or troll farms to help spread their message or lend it credibility.
Another reason that political propaganda is so prevalent on social media platforms has to do with the latter’s business model. The more sensationalist a post is, the more likely it is to be read and shared by others. This drives revenue to the platform at the same time spreading propaganda. So it’s fair to say that social media companies have been complicit in the growth and spread of political propaganda.
SOCIAL MEDIA POLITICAL CATASTROPHE
In addition to political propaganda, social media has also been a major drive to the increase of Political catastrophe. Political catastrophes are catastrophic/disastrous events that occur due to political activities. Political catastrophe can also be described as political crisis.
propaganda in South Sudan for example, despite the government’s efforts to improve freedom, the security forces and the political leaders still hold a lot of power in the nation and have huge influence to manipulate and control the media leading to catastrophes.
In another instance, early to mid this year, activists and politicians in South Africa convened an anti-immigrant event on social media dubbed ‘Operation Dudula’ led by Nhlanla Lux Dlamini . Operation Dudula’ was focused on blaming “foreigners” for criminal acts. The operation Dudula’ Started As a social media campaign that influenced that ended into a physical demonstration which spewed physical violence to a point of stoning and burning some immigrants (“foreigners”) to death.
The targeted “foreigners” who are victims of xenophobia are fellow Africans from across boarders living within the land of Africa demarcated as another country (South Africa) by Western countries during the colonialism era.
John Steenhuisen MP, Leader of the Democratic Alliance of South Africa issued a statement in August, 2022 which enlightened and condemned political leaders that cause political catastrophe through social media. He stated “The behaviour of ActionSA’s Johannesburg MMC for Economic Development, Nkululeko Mbundu, as well as ActionSA’s leader, Herman Mashaba, for springing to his defense – must be condemned in the strongest terms. Mbundu’s social media comments directed at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri) in the wake of a court order reversing his eviction of 600 informal traders were nothing less than an incitement to violence, and the NGO had to subsequently shut its office down following death threats to their lawyers and threats to burn down their offices.”
The power of social media has and is influencing political aspirations for both good and bad. It is therefore up to us, the users to be cautious enough.
